


Sefikura Week 2019

by Illusioneery (Arkee)



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Flying Sex, Human Experimentation Mention, M/M, Minor Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, SefikuraWeek, There Are Flying Fucks (Literally), There's just a bit of Coffee Shop AU, Untagged Background Relationships, Vanishing On Your Boyfriend Only To Make Things Awkward By Reappearing Some Years Later - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-16 03:51:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17542142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkee/pseuds/Illusioneery
Summary: A little compilation for the Sefikura Week 2019 challenge. Sephiroth mysteriously vanishes during the Nibelheim incident, leaving Cloud to wonder what might have happened to him.





	1. A Reunion Of Sorts (Reunion)

**Author's Note:**

> Whoop, here we go again.  
> I'll just say I have no idea of what I'm doing (again) with this one, but we'll see where it goes.  
> Happy Sefikura Week everyone!

Sat near the cannon in Junon, Cloud stared at the reds and oranges in the horizon as they slowly gave in to the first violets and blues of the coming night, thinking.

It had been a week since the Turks picked both him and Zack up from Nibelheim — only the two of them. They were left in Junon to wait for further instructions, for a quicker deployment in case Shinra managed to track down Genesis Rhapsodos after his brief appearance in the Nibel area.

They said nothing of Sephiroth.

Neither the radio or the television said anything about him, either. It was as though they were all trying to pretend he didn’t exist, that he didn’t go to that damned mission and disappeared without a trace. Trying to pretend the reactor up in the mountains didn’t explode during the night or that the manor, a Shinra property, didn’t catch on fire.

Cloud closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of the remaining sunlight and trying his best not to think too much about it again.

But he failed. He’d failed many things; he never made SOLDIER, he only caused trouble wherever he went, he failed to notice what was going on with Sephiroth until it was too late. He’d failed to learn that Sephiroth wanted to leave Shinra, depending on how things turned out.

And since he failed, there he was, thinking for the hundredth time that afternoon about how Sephiroth loved sunsets. It cast its warm hues on everything, he said once, it made him feel a little less pale than he was and it was a time he remembered seeing the troops more cheerful and motivated — when they weren’t preparing for an attack on the enemy, that is.

He had said that the best sunsets could be seen from Junon, and he wasn’t wrong. But he wasn’t there to see it, either.

Zack approached and sat beside him, offering a popsicle in an attempt to soften the blow of the news.

“They just declared him KIA,” he said, which in Shinra was code for  _ We will probably not focus our efforts in looking for him at this time because it’s not an emergency or priority, so he’s probably good as dead for us. _

Cloud’s heart sunk a little more.

* * *

They deserted Shinra a month later.

It had been a mix of emotions, disagreements and absence of communication that culminated in an assassination; Zack brought Hojo down and Cloud fired most of the bullets in his rifle at the defenseless scientist. He wished he could shoot one for each night Sephiroth returned to his apartment and called him over, feeling more than just vulnerable over all those lab sessions. But that was far more bullets than the ones he had with him.

They had taken Aerith — Zack’s girlfriend who Cloud had just recently met — along with them as soon as they were out, over the fear that Shinra would send the Turks to try to capture her again, as they had tried in the past month, when they believed Zack to be in Junon instead of just returning to Midgar.

And ever since, they had been walking all around; the still heartbroken Cloud, the enthusiastic but slowly shattering Zack and the seemingly delicate but sassy Aerith, who had donned a hood to conceal her identity and had been learning her way around materias other than her mother’s heirloom.

She had also found all the good places that served as their ever moving hideout thus far, had been the creative mind covering their trail to keep Shinra from finding them while they planned the company’s downfall and spread the word as much as they could of all the dirty taking place behind the scenes.

They gained the support of some people as time went, but Shinra was big and the reactors were practically everywhere. Breaking them did nothing but delay things for a while until they got fixed again, which usually happened by the time they could break another.

No. They needed more. They needed help from outside Midgar as well.

So out of the city they went, gathering support and new companions alike on the way.

First came Nanaki, an intelligent beast who Shinra was trying to capture. Then Yuffie, a ninja from Wutai who saw her country lose its glory after the war. Barret, a man from Corel who first believed Shinra to be bringing good things to his hometown, and who was really upset when he learned it was otherwise. Cid, a pilot who dreamed of space but who doubted he’d reach it through Shinra after they told him about it. And finally, Cait Sith, a curious fortune teller robot who joined to learn more about something he foresaw, but who was growing fond of their cause rather quickly.

Eventually, they found themselves reaching Nibelheim and stopping there for the night.

It had been a little over a year since then, but Cloud had never forgotten. He stared at what remained of the old manor through the inn’s window much like Sephiroth had done.

In that entire year and a few months, Shinra hadn’t bothered with sending people over to rebuild it and cover the mess. It was no longer a town near a reactor, so it no longer mattered. Townsfolk didn’t want to go near the manor either, superstitious as they were of the ruins containing a ghost.

Cloud was the only one who went there, once everyone else was asleep, wanting to understand. He kicked furniture remains out of the way as he walked through it under the moonlight that the destroyed roof couldn’t hide. Only him, his thoughts of his missing boyfriend and the sounds of the Nibel wolves in the distance.

He found a man who wasn’t Sephiroth in one of the rooms, with whom he had a conversation about Shinra’s old and new misdeeds. About Sephiroth and the story behind his birth.

The next morning he had a new companion to introduce to the others. His name was Vincent Valentine and he, too, had been used by Shinra.

They picked up Tifa, who Cloud knew from a young age, on their way out. She liked their cause and she was trying to flee an arranged marriage.

They travelled the whole world in their quest of stopping Shinra, finally forcing them to stop the reactors and close down their energy business, forcing their own group to break apart to help searching other energy sources.

Once again, it was just him, Aerith and Zack. And not once in that entire journey around the world did he cross paths with Sephiroth.

Maybe the true reason he disappeared was because he had somehow died, Cloud often thought, saddened by that idea. Maybe it had been the reactor explosion. Maybe they'd cross paths again someday, in the Lifestream.

He kept that thought in his mind for a long time, to comfort himself and move on.

* * *

“One more,” Aerith said, passing him a slip of paper.

Well, he could use one more stop, one more excuse to be out for a little longer.

No matter how much he liked being in their little cafe, after their journey was over and Shinra was no more, Cloud was filled with a sense of emptiness, without a big quest to pursue. He comforted himself with the deliveries, with the thought of moving onwards. Slowly, he was moving on from the part of his past he couldn’t recover as well, accepting it for what it was, despite the various questions he still had about it.

More deliveries meant more smiles out there in the world and maybe, one day that kind of happiness would win over his mourning. Maybe that day would come soon.

Or maybe not, but at the very least he was moving around, instead of looking at the sunset and moping. He was going places, seeing those new constructions that would allow people to get energy out of flowing water taking place; no longer seeing or breathing the smoke of the mako reactors everywhere. He was seeing the grass starting to grow around Midgar again, albeit a little shy.

Things would be alright.

That new delivery would take him to the chocobo farm, Aerith was saying, no matter that it was noted in the slip of paper. The folks there liked their cakes as much as Cloud liked his motorcycle, the  _ Fenrir. _

He was about to pick up the box and head outside when they heard a noise, like that of someone hitting the floor. They hurried to the front of the shop, worried that something had happened to Zack.

But all they found there was a silver-haired man in a black cloak fainted on their floor; an unexpected reunion that had been given up on a long time ago.

A reunion that caused Cloud’s heart to skip a beat.


	2. A Warm Moment (Heat)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Or a heated moment. Or a fever moment. I don't know. It's short today.

Cloud supposed he should feel happier.

Shinra was no more because of him and his friends; he, Aerith and Zack had a business of their own, the Planet was slowly recovering and now… Sephiroth had turned up after disappearing to Gaia knows where. And Hel knows that he missed him every day after Nibelheim.

But as he stood there beside Aerith, taking in the situation before them, those initial sweet feelings of surprise faded into something else. An immense desire of ditching everything and going to Tifa’s bar to drink himself silly, a huge want of punching Sephiroth out of existence altogether.

A very large and still unanswered  _ Where have you been, you fucking bastard? _

“Cloud…” Aerith tried pulling him out of his thoughts, gently, “wouldn’t that be…?”

“It’s Sephiroth, yes,” Cloud said as he approached him to check, feeling his head a little lost in the clouds due to the surreality of it. He was still breathing alright, he… He had let his bangs grow, it seemed; actually, he didn’t seem to have cut any of his stupidly long hair, other than probably caring for any possible split ends.  _ Gaia.  _ Two years and he was still—

“Holy shit,” said Aerith, yanking the black cloak out of the way as soon as she made contact with him, “either he’s gotten a way high fever or he was outside in the wastelands.”

Alright, that wasn’t good. That was so not good.  _ Damn. _

They moved him to one of the rooms in the back of the shop, trying to get him as comfortable as it was possible. Once he was, Aerith turned to Cloud, worried but still mischievous.

“Ok, you stay with him. I’ll get those cakes to the farm.”

Except she had no vehicle of her own. Which meant that, along with the expression on her face, it was code for  _ I’m taking Fenrir. _

Usually, he wouldn’t let anyone near his beloved motorcycle. He’d become a little worse about that rule after Tifa had tried moving it away from the front of her bar, where he had parked it hastily one day, and ended up crashing the thing on the nearest wall. Tifa survived,  _ Fenrir _ survived, but Cloud had to make that rule clearer for everyone after that.

Well, everyone except Aerith.

Aerith, who didn’t shove him out of his room at night to explore the Gold Saucer, only to get extremely awkward with him in the gondola like someone else did. Aerith who never used a kidnapped child as blackmail as a certain (former) Shinra employee pretending to be a regular robot cat did. Aerith who respected his things and gave him space instead of pressing him to know what was wrong. Aerith who was basically the joy and the life of that household.

_ Gods.  _ She could take  _ Fenrir _ out for a ride any day, delivery or not.

“Keys are in the chocobo pot in the counter,” he simply said.

* * *

“Hey,” Sephiroth said once he had come to and had seen him sitting on the edge of the bed. He sounded a little hoarse, but that voice… ah. Cloud wanted to cry his eyes out and punch him, all at the same time.

Instead, he let out an awkward “Hey” of his own.

“I finally found you,” Sephiroth mumbled and let his eyes flutter closed again, “You… came back to Midgar.”

Cloud’s lips end up twitching awkwardly, torn between smiling and frowning at him, a second away from combusting into anger.

“Yeah, unlike a certain someone who torches mansions, explodes reactors and fucks off—”

“I’m... sorry,” he said and fell into silence again.

“You’re sorry? That’s it? You vanish for  _ two fucking years, _ without telling me anything and now… What do you even expect, really?”

“Your forgiveness, for one. It wasn’t… it wasn’t a pleasant time for me, either.”

“My forgiveness,” Cloud laughed, “You think that’s enough? You think I’ll go ‘Ooh, it’s alright Seph, come here, I missed you’?”

“No. Because you wouldn’t be my Cloud if you did that.”

And definitely no, because Sephiroth can pull him closer by himself, even if he’s still shaky and feverish. He never needed or expected Cloud to beckon him over, before or then. He rather expected him to struggle against the sudden hug in his anger, which he did for a few seconds before starting to sob quietly.

They didn’t talk much afterwards.


	3. Bad Hair Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's late and it's unedited because I had a bad muse day (bad coincidence!) and it shows. It shows so much I don't want to edit this? I'll probably go back to this tomorrow and regret not editing it, but hey, you only live once, as they say.

They managed to avoid addressing the adamantoise in the room for two entire days.

Likewise, they managed to mostly avoid talking to each other properly for two whole days after that initial conversation, somehow. Mostly, because Cloud still needed to introduce him to people if someone he knew dropped by and they were in the same place at the time, since Sephiroth was a new face to many of them, for one. And, knowing enough of Cloud’s past with him, his friends congratulated him.

_ Nice! You can live happily together now! _ was the general sentiment.

Except that they were regarding each other awkwardly. Cloud for his part, didn’t quite know what to do with him and much less himself. Should he even bother asking? Should he just let things flow back to normal and forget it? Should he even try asking in the first place when, after the introductions had taken place, every time he tried someone or something else seemed to interrupt?

It started with Zack.

Cloud was just done crying all over Sephiroth for being a charming bastard who left him without any explanation in the past and was about to get all angry about it again and confront him on the matter when Zack —  _ Zack Fucking Fair! _ — entered to pick something in that room without knocking first. It was easy to understand: that one was an unused guest room and all of them left things there sometimes for a reason or another. But it also immediately prompted the conversation of  _ Wow, buddy, is that Sephiroth? Sephiroth, man! Long time no see! _

Sephiroth had looked at him with an expression he knew well, — that he  _ still _ knew well — one that meant  _ We can’t discuss this with Zack around. _

Then it had been Aerith, who came back from the delivery and wanted to get to know Sephiroth better and offer him a place to stay, as long as he could help, of course. Because they had a guest room that was barely used, after all. Because  _ Oh, Cloud will want to keep you around, won’t you Cloud? _

But Cloud didn’t know.

He really wanted to, but at the same time he felt… hurt. He still didn’t know why Sephiroth vanished and he didn’t like that even Zack was very optimistic about them being together again instead of asking  _ where the absolute fuck _ Sephiroth had been and why would he leave like that.

And so, Nanaki came by.

He and Sephiroth talked through most of the afternoon, something clicking between them. A healthy distraction while Sephiroth cleaned and organized stuff nearby, while Cloud, who was supposed to help with baking, accidentally dropped a real lot of salt in the cupcake batter.

He didn’t even notice it until they were baked, until he decided to have one as a taste test.

Tifa brought them some really great wine in the evening, sitting for a while to drink with them and flirt with both Aerith and Zack in ways that were so stupidly obvious that had Aerith flirting back, but somehow had Zack not getting any of it as flirting.

Nanaki had just left and Cloud thought maybe one of them could approach the other and—

Sephiroth joined the others for a drink, causing Cloud to accidentally elbow a glass he didn’t even realize was there. It broke into little shards once it hit the floor. Hm, yes. Just great.

* * *

After dinner and a day of a few problems, of failing to talk to Sephiroth in private about that very important something, Cloud sort of snapped.

He finally caught Sephiroth alone, or about to be alone, that is. He was just entering the bathroom for a bath, it seemed. Cloud only had time to reach out his hair and get a hold of it, drawing a groan out of him and effectively stopping him.

“Ow… Cloud can you not—”

“Where the fuck did you go after Nibelheim?” He demanded.

Sephiroth blinked at him, then dragged him inside the bathroom, closing the door behind them.

“I went after Genesis,” he started.

“Zack said he said some very… not good things to you.”

“That’s correct.”

“Then, why? You wanted to kick his ass or something?”

Sephiroth chuckled at his choice of words, albeit a little awkward.

“I was afraid he was going to terrorize more people, so yes.”

“But you didn’t come back. I don’t think it takes two years to kick someone’s ass, I mean… This wasn’t Wutai—”

“I ‘kicked his ass’, as you say and joined him.”

Cloud stared at him in utter disbelief.

“You—  _ what? _ ” he asked, confused and angry at the concept after everything that happened before Nibelheim, after seeing Sephiroth literally worry himself thin over the entire situation.

“He wanted to end Shinra, I was angry at Shinra, but I didn’t want him to set the entire world on fire or something.”

“Well, how did that go?”

“Poorly,” he ends up admitting, a little reluctant, “We were able to infiltrate Shinra’s secret labs, Deepground, and dismantle the entire thing, but they got him near the end and—”

Sephiroth bit his lip and looked away, visibly pained. He had hated Genesis, during the time he left, took Angeal with him and caused that entire mess instead of tackling the core of the issue. But near the end, when they shared a similar goal again, he’d felt… He’d felt like they could be friends again, just like before.

Gaia, he didn’t have any time to properly mourn and—

“I didn’t even know Shinra had a secret lab,” Cloud said, pulling him into a tight hug.

“Believe me, it’s better that you haven’t seen it,” Sephiroth whispered, a little shaky, “so much better. Hojo was involved in it.”

“Ah, fuck.” He tried his best not to think about the kind of thing that might have been taking place in the labs Sephiroth mentioned. But the very mention of Hojo reminds him of all the sort of mutated monstrosities, glowing mako eyes in the darkness and very difficult nights. “I… We could take a shower before we talk about anything else?”

“Yes. Then we can do that somewhere… more comfortable.”

“Somewhere that’s not a bathroom,” Cloud agreed with a little disgust in his voice, causing Sephiroth to laugh, even if a little awkwardly.

_Maybe,_ he thinks, _it’ll be a little less awkward soon._


	4. Airborne (Unsafe Practices)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's something lewd taking placing here! Please proceed with caution?
> 
> And there's a vague (ish?) mention of the happenings in Deepground when Sephiroth was there.
> 
> Also dick latte art, just because that's hilarious.

“No,” he says firmly.

“Why not?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You’ll take a look down by accident and you’ll regret it immediately.”

Cloud pouts, walking carefully around him to touch his feathers. It feels  _ very _ pleasant, the way he runs his fingers just right against the base of his wing, but he can feel the beginnings of another attempt at convincing him that the idea is good taking form.

Sephiroth thinks about how Zack must have been a bad influence to him all these years and almost regrets not taking Cloud along with him after Nibelheim. Almost, because he’s perfectly aware of the hell that it would have been, watching not only Genesis but Cloud as well as they all disguised themselves as Deepground soldiers and pretended to be part of it to break the entire thing from the inside out.

Maybe way more than perfectly aware as he ended up telling Cloud about most of the experience, in little bits and pieces through the days as they caught up properly to what one another had been up to; of willing going through the experiments sometimes just so they wouldn’t draw suspicion, of seeing people being kidnapped into the system and seeing them exit it through death only. Of seeing Genesis finding that fate once he was discovered, to keep the secret of those labs intact and unharmed, and having to pretend he didn’t know him while he watched it happen.

Of this thing — the dark wing on his back — awakening a little close to the end of that whole ordeal, of course. Which caused Cloud to come up with something... utterly ridiculous.

He turns his head to look at him and his big blue eyes and just thinks he’s a kinky bastard.

“We don’t need to fly so high,” Cloud tries, running a hand over the space between his back and the wing and making him feel  _ very warm. _

Sephiroth feels like running to the kitchen, snagging a cake and throwing it on his face to make him stop with this at once. Aerith would probably yell at him, he thinks, but it’d be completely worth it. At the very least, Zack would laugh at it, and if he were to be working on his latte art skills, even better, because he’d make a mess out of it and give Sephiroth a reason to laugh right back at him.

Aerith would yell at him for it, he has to remember. Worth it, but she’s still his boss.

“Alright, fine,” he gives in at last, “You want to get  _ fucked _ in the air? You’ll be fucked in the air.”

Cloud visibly shivers at his choice of words.  _ Good. _

* * *

Exactly as he said, Cloud looks down by pure accident, catches a glimpse of how far into the air they are from the roof of the cafe and gasps. Sephiroth thrusts upwards into him the best he can to pull his attention back.

“Oh, come now…” He says, “You were enjoying yourself… ah, quite a lot until now.”

“I— Y-yeah… you’re right…”

Sephiroth smiles at him, all smug, and thrusts again, causing Cloud’s back to arch in a way that would definitely be concerning and would yell  _ Oh shit, he might fall, _ that could have him worried sick and fretting over it if he wasn’t so into it at the moment.

Cloud, he decides, is a terrible influence on him. Far worse than Zack and the occasional dick latte art he doesn’t show Aerith — Not because he fears her reaction to it, of course, but because he knows she’s an even worse influence than he is, himself, and he doesn’t want to start a dick latte art contest. Maybe even worse than what Genesis used to be while vaguely sane.

“Gaia… Just— just make me cum already… so we can get down…” Cloud pleads and he’s happy to oblige.

But as fun as it is, Sephiroth decides against repeating it in the future.

Too risky, he thinks.


	5. Rebuild (New Beginnings)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Midgar starts getting rebuilt here and there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a day behind but I shall catch up ò v ó) !

Sephiroth stood outside the Shinra building and stared for a moment.

Or rather, what used to be the Shinra building.

Ever since he’d returned to Midgar after looking for Cloud everywhere else, he hadn’t gone there or to the labs underground. All he knew of it was what Cloud told him about what happened. That they forced Shinra out, as peaceful as possible, that a lot of high ups were detained in Junon now, and Rufus Shinra had wiped his hands free of the company’s dirty and left the building to its own fate.

Which, as it seemed, was to be taken down to give room to something new.

He wondered what it’d become as he left, not wanting to draw in attention by standing there for far too long. Maybe a mall? A theater? Or even a hospital, because Gaia knew that place could always use some more that weren’t dedicated to heavy, cruel experimentation on beasts and people alike.

He hoped it’d be a better place than Shinra had been, at least.

* * *

It was two in the morning when he woke up to the absence of Cloud, who he quickly found near the window, staring at the outside.

“I have never seen the lights out in this city,” he said, when Sephiroth got close enough to him.

Tha huge lights that usually illuminated most of Midgar under the plate, that kept things visible in a time the smoke of the reactors covered most of everything, were indeed out. It couldn’t be due to maintenance; the other lights usually remained on during the process.

He covered the hand Cloud had resting on the window with his own, taking a good look outside.

“They’ve never been off like this my entire life.” Or at least as far as he knew of it.

Something about it felt soothing.

“I wonder if they’ll take them out and install something new instead,” Cloud said beside him, leaning his head against Sephiroth’s head with a soft sigh.

“I wonder, too.”

* * *

A few days after saw not only Cait Sith but his “father” — Reeve Tuesti — as well entering the cafe, sitting at one of the tables and ordering a moogleccino.

After a while, noticing the place’s low movement for the day, he called everyone over to tell them about his plans for Midgar. Or rather,  _ Neo _ Midgar, given those plans involved changing the city quite… radically.

Sephiroth never thought that in his lifetime he’d ever hear about removing the upper plate, of allowing the sunlight to properly reach the slums below.

Then again, he never thought he’d end up learning how to do such a delicate task as decorating cakes; making something that would make people happy rather than steal lives and smiles.

He thought of where Reeve’s plans would take the town and smiled.

* * *

Cloud held his hand firmly when they finally got to watch the last bits of Sector Seven’s plate getting removed. In just a few days, after things were deemed truly safe, the people of the slums who’d been staying elsewhere would return to their houses. To the beautiful sight of the blue skies above and the warmth of the sun.

He squeezed Cloud’s hand gently, looking at the ongoing changes fondly.

It’d take time; one plate at a time, just so they always had somewhere to accommodate the people living both above and below the plates.

But regardless, it was a good beginning.


	6. Beach Night (Vacation)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud and friends go to Costa del Sol, but Cloud's motion sickness gets in the way of the vacation.

An overly excited Aerith pushed a very,  _ very  _ flustered Tifa out of the room, while the latter covered her chest with a towel and protested about “this bikini barely covering anything at all”. It was difficult to believe that was the same woman who brought wine over and initiated flirting.

Right behind them, Zack followed, carrying an umbrella, waving a bottle of sunscreen with his other hand and threatening to apply it on them himself if they dared to go out there without it.

Aerith liked the idea very much, proceeding to push Tifa out of the villa while giggling. Tifa, who was strong enough to just stop her if she wanted, but who just squeaked and went along, instead.

Zack waved at Cloud, who weakly waved back from the couch, before picking up the ridiculously oversized hat Aerith dropped in her haste and dashing after the ladies, shouting things about forgetting the sunscreen again rather animatedly.

Cloud just stared and wondered how the three of them weren’t together already at this point. It just… it just  _ worked, _ in ways that Cloud never imagined, even. There was an absurd amount of flirting and innuendo involved. Sephiroth told him about finding the three of them curled up together on the couch one day, having fallen asleep while watching a movie or something.

They even practically had... dates? Gaia.

He sighed and curled up on the couch, still feeling absolutely awful but at least better than he’d been when they first arrived.

It was supposed to be a good vacation, with swimming, long walks on the beach, sand castles and getting Sephiroth out of work, to fix his ongoing lifelong problem of working too much and not doing fun outings like that.

(Cloud cursed Shinra silently for that.)

Barret had come all the way from Corel and offered to look after the cafe for a few days, wanting a break from the kind of work he had been doing back in his hometown. Tifa got one of her barkeeping friends to look after her business, after Aerith insisted she should come along, too. (Which now just seemed to be an excuse to see her in a bikini.)

But of course, Cloud still suffered from motion sickness when he was in vehicles he wasn’t driving for far too long.

Being on a boat for days didn’t help his case, much less being on sea level with all that classic Costa Del Sol heat. He spent a good part of the first day sleeping here and there, keeping a bucket nearby just in case he couldn’t get to the bathroom.

He still felt ill, though he didn’t feel like he was going to throw up again; he felt weak and restless, felt as though his stomach was an unknown enemy his body was trying to combat. And overall, he felt guilty, since Sephiroth insisted on looking after him instead of going outside to enjoy the water, the sands and the sun.

At least Aerith’s villa, which she bought during their journey when Cloud felt it was too expensive, was a really comfortable place to be.

Sephiroth approached, a glass of apple juice in his hand. Cloud sat up again to take it.

“Are you feeling any better?” He asked, sitting near him on the couch and running a hand through his hair.

“A little… I’ll be better eventually. You should be outside with the others instead of worrying too much.”

“Too much sun,” Sephiroth chuckled.

“Zack has some sunscreen?”

“Too much sun,” he repeated, “and too little of you, outside. I’d rather wait for you to get better.”

“You’re a big sappy, y’know that?”

“You made me like that,” Sephiroth said, welcoming Cloud’s head on his lap as the latter set his glass aside and lay down.

* * *

By the time they went out, there was not even a hint of sun in the sky anymore.

The little waves gently touching their ankles from time to time felt cold, but neither of them minded it much as they walked together on the shore, getting the sort of peace that they probably wouldn’t get during the day, with all those tourists outside and all the noise.

They even found a few, empty seashells that washed ashore.

“I think,” Sephiroth eventually said, “I want to come back here next year. With you.”

“Maybe I won’t be sick next time,” Cloud offered.

“I could pack up some medicine. But if you do, I wouldn’t mind looking after you and going out after the sun’s down. It’s… soothing.”

Cloud leaned against his shoulder as they walked back towards the villa.

“Let’s come back every year, then,” he said.


	7. Fluffy (Free Day)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud gets them a little something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whee, it's done!  
> I hope it was an enjoyable ride, despite being rushed and vague at various points, haha >w>;;
> 
> Thanks for the kudos, comments and stuff!

Cloud walked in with a box.

Atop of it sat a large and clearly unnecessary ribbon, at least for purposes other than decorating. Sephiroth eyed it over the book he had been reading, full of curiosity.

He couldn’t remember for the life of him what the occasion was; he’d always been terrible with remembering those dates that didn’t involve work, having to note down many of the ones he truly cherished. It’d never been required of him that he memorized such things, starting by his own birthday, that Hojo had noted down on a random notebook in the Shinra manor but never told him.

(He was younger than he thought. It was rather absurd, when he thought about it and his past. No wonder why Yuffie had forgiven him on his involvement with the war; he was raised for it and sent to it as practically a kid knowing not much outside of Shinra’s views.)

Cloud approached him, the box in his arms and a smile on his lips, the kind that had him setting his book aside with interest and smiling right back.

“It’s the anniversary of the day you came back,” he explained before Sephiroth could even ask, seeing the him of confusion on his face, “So, uh… I got us a little something?”

He handed the box over with care. Sephiroth couldn’t help but notice the little holes on it, the warmth of it as he set it down on his lap. Whatever was in the box, it was definitely alive. Cloud sat next to him, expecting a reaction.

Inside it he found… something white and fluffy. A cat.

It stared up at him with big blue eyes, full of interest. And stared back he did, equally interested, a little sparkle playing in his eyes.

He had never had a pet of his own.

Hojo had denied him one for most of his childhood. When he grew up, the war came, stealing him away from whatever comforts he had back in his apartment.

The closest he ever had to it were Angeal’s plants.

They weren’t animals, he knew that. But they needed care and love to keep living, too. Sephiroth had even gotten himself a little system to water them and shield them from too much sun whenever he was out for too long. He wondered what might have happened to them after he left to Nibelheim. Maybe they died. Maybe they emptied his apartment after he left and threw them out. Oh, he didn’t like thinking too much about that.

He felt jealous of Cloud, sometimes, who’d brought home a Nibel wolf pup once, before Shinra, while he was dealing with labs and killing mutated beasts for training.

But, no more.

“I love you,” he said, turning a little to face Cloud, “I love you and our cat.”

A cat that really liked scritches under the chin, it seemed.

Cloud kissed his cheek, whispering sweet nothings in return.

“Reeve found her while he and his people were emptying Sector 2," he told him afterwards, "Someone left her in a cake box near a pet shop or something.”

“She’s perfect,” said Sephiroth before dissolving into little cooing noises that had the cat exiting her box to try climbing on him. He helped her up and supported her. “Who’s a perfect cake girl? It’s you, yes, you are.”

Cloud chuckled beside him.

“You’re a cute dork,” he noted, reaching out to pet the cat, “Do you… uh, wanna name her? Just to, y’know, have the honors?”

“Freya,” he decided almost in a heartbeat, “her name is Freya, now.”

“Freya,” Cloud repeated, “sounds nice, I like it.”

The cat seemed to like it, too.

* * *

Sephiroth decided it’d be good to spend some time of that anniversary in the bed, too, after finding Freya a good, safe basket that she could use as a bed for the time being and finishing readying up the place for the cat’s presence. Not sleeping, of course, far from it. It was more about celebrating the anniversary of their reunion in a heated way; covering Cloud with love for being there with and for him.

He went to the bathroom afterwards to dispose of all those tissues they used to clean up after they were done, only to return to the warm sight of Cloud fast asleep, Freya curled up near him instead of using her own bed.

He smiled gently before joining them.


End file.
